Gold's Back In Race After Sell-Off

Supported by light buying on dips by Japanese investors, gold rebounded on Monday after a sell-off the previous session.

Spot gold was at $921.00/922.00 per ounce after falling more than $20 to $916.40/917.20 late in New York on Friday, hurt by a rising dollar and an upbeat U.S. stock market.

Citigroup Inc fuelled a rally on Wall Street on Friday as investors took comfort that the No.1 U.S. bank was taking aggressive steps to resolve credit problems that led to its latest quarterly loss.

Last week, gold climbed as high as $952.60, the highest level since March 28. Gold is traditionally seen as a safe-haven asset when volatility rises in other markets.

The most active U.S. gold futures contract for the delivery in June also bounced back in Asia, rising $9.2, or 1 percent, to $924.40 per ounce.

The benchmark February gold contract on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange fell 30 yen a gram to 3,103 yen in a delayed reaction to the metal's fall late last week.

Elsewhere, the dollar edged up 0.2 percent to 103.90 yen after Citigroup earnings boosted hopes that the worst had passed for bank losses stemming from the troubled U.S. housing sector.

The euro was steady at $1.5815 holding below an all-time high of $1.5985 hit last week.